NASA Selects Proposals to Study Neutron Stars, Black Holes and More(31 Jul 2015)
NASA has selected five proposals submitted to its Explorers
Program to conduct focused scientific investigations and develop instruments
that fill the scientific gaps between the agency's larger missions. The
selected proposals, three Astrophysics Small Explorer missions (PRAXyS, IXPE and SPHEREX)
and two Explorer Missions of Opportunity, will study polarized X-ray emissions
from neutron star-black hole binary systems, the exponential expansion of
space in the early universe, galaxies in the early universe, and star
formation in our Milky Way galaxy.

HEASoft 6.17, XSPEC 12.9.0 released(30 Jul 2015)
Released July 29, 2015; primarily driven by updates to the NuSTAR and Swift/XRT software, but also includes updates to other packages which have been revised to mirror the current development versions in use at
the HEASARC. XSPEC version 12.9.0 also released as part of HEASoft 6.17....

Pulsar Punches Hole In Stellar Disk(28 Jul 2015)
The double star system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 contains a star about
30 times as massive as the Sun and a pulsar. According to Pavlov
et al. (2015, ApJ, 806, 192) the fast-moving pulsar in this
binary appears to have punched a hole in a disk of gas around its companion
star and launched a fragment of the disk outward at an average speed of 7
per cent of the speed of light. Chandra is tracking
this cosmic clump, which appears to be picking up speed as it moves out.